How Xbox One might thrive in a post-Kinect world

Op-ed: With Xbox One's hanger-on out of the way, MS can stage an E3 comeback.

Microsoft's last attempt to convince game writers about Kinect 2.0's prowess ended in too much lag, and the company hasn't made a big stir since then. Maybe that's why they're cutting the Kinect cord this week.

If Microsoft and Sony were talked about by fans and the press like American political parties, then the Xbox One would be tagged as this election season’s John Kerry, flip-flopping all over the next-gen gaming landscape. Its lack of coherent direction began with its original plan to require systems to always be online and potentially block used game sales, but Microsoft reversed itself in the face of public uproar.

Even a simple, sensible path to indie game publishing didn’t exist as the console ramped up for launch, and the indie game program didn’t see a substantial launch until the full unveil of ID@Xbox this March. (That series’ best offering thus far, Super Time Force, debuted today.)

Further Reading

This week, we've seen the slaughtering of two more of the Xbox division’s sacred cows—media apps no longer need to live behind an Xbox Live Gold paywall, and, more important, the Xbox One is no longer “built around the Kinect” included in every box. Both are welcome changes and bring the Xbox One to price parity with its major rival, the PlayStation 4. I fully believe they put Microsoft back on track to contend in the next-gen gaming market. Before I argue on Redmond's behalf, however, forgive me a petty moment or two to laugh at Kinect’s apparent funeral.

Recovering “thousands of hours”

Kinect was the Xbox division’s annoying, entitled child. For starters, it sucked up resources in more ways than one. According to Xbox chief Phil Spencer, “thousands of hours of engineering” went into Kinect just to get it to the point it’s at today; that’s a lot of time that could have been spent elsewhere. The console also took a performance hit, thanks to supporting microphone and camera functions.

Worst of all, the Kinect kept being propped up and excused, like a rich man’s bratty progeny in line to take over a car dealership, as something worth attaching a higher price point to. After Kinect for Xbox 360 was proven, without a shadow of a doubt, to impose significant, game-killing lag to its motion sensing, Microsoft began hinting at the higher fidelity and speed of its successor.

Yet when push came to shove at preview events, Kinect for Xbox One continued to disappoint. All the talk of higher bus speeds and higher-res cameras fell apart in proof-of-concept demos, particularly one I personally tested at Microsoft’s Redmond campus that let players control a combative robot in a series of Tron-like corridors. Lunges, arm waves, and more continued to suffer from noticeable lag on par with the best Kinect action games, and Microsoft representatives had the nerve to say that “development is still in process.” That shouldn’t have been the excuse for a project that had been iterated on since Kinect’s retail debut in 2010.

Why haven’t developers been rushing to release motion-enabled Kinect games in large numbers, now that the sensor is included with every console? My guess, quite frankly, is that every developer knows the sensor doesn’t cut it. That’s the same reason Microsoft’s demos have always focused on voice rather than hand-waving as a means of controlling the system interface. In my months of Xbox One use, I have repeatedly noticed that the newer Kinect’s hand-navigation system is, by and large, less accurate than that of the Xbox 360.

The one benefit new Kinect has over old Kinect—namely, a high enough resolution camera to recognize details like fingers—has yet to see a real, testable application in either games or the system dashboard. It's possible Microsoft will dump some impressive Kinect games onto its E3 show floor in early June, but this week's announcement suggests there isn't some great Kinect-powered software waiting in the wings.

Parity in every way?

With that bile out of the way, I want to applaud Microsoft for disinheriting the bratty, undeserving kid. I’ve seen bureaucracy and inaction at Microsoft kill deserving projects and prolong stupid ones in equal parts, which is why I believe this flip is far from a flop.

For all the factors pointing to Microsoft's early console deficit, though, at the end of the day, neither system has much in the way of exclusive games that prove at a glance that “my system’s the better system.”

So we're left with neither next-gen contender as a clear winner in exclusive content thus far, nor is one system astoundingly more powerful. That's great news for the system that's currently behind—and I mean Xbox One, not the dead-in-the-water Wii U. Microsoft knows this, because this week’s announcements aren’t the stuff of Sega Saturn-level desperation.

Rather, Microsoft is using a pre-E3 announcement to clear all of the trash off its dinner table. Xbox's price is now equal, and that includes its subscription service now mainly offering bonuses and premiums, rather than merely expected media-streaming access. That only makes sense if Microsoft has a feast in store for E3—and obviously, Sony is in a good position to spoil the party with its own exclusives and franchises (though it’s worth noting that Naughty Dog’s recent staff departures could dilute any Last of Us or Uncharted sequel announcements).

While it's fun to revel in the schadenfreude of Microsoft’s repeated foibles and turnarounds, the company has managed to re-orient itself toward potential competitive parity. I’ll go make some popcorn and save myself a prime seat for this year’s E3. This is gonna be fun.